Full question: I commit the same sins over and over, and I feel bad going to confession when it is most likely I will commit the same sin. How do I say I will not sin again when I feel inside I will sin again? Am I using confession as a excuse to sin knowing I can confess and be forgiven?

All of us have weaknesses and our sins are consequences of that. No one is perfect, and usually many of our sins are things that continue to trip us up time and time again.

That said, while we have this tendency toward some particular sin, we also need to attempt to get over this. Our efforts here must be true attempts to get past our sin, to get underneath the tendency, and to make a true attempt to stop the behavior.

Again, none of this is easy and therefore we have confession to go to when we inevitably fail in our attempts.

So, confession does not remove the need to make an effort at trying to change our behavior. It does allow us to try again when we fail and to be forgiven by God.

Two terms to keep in mind: Perfect contrition is when we ask for forgiveness because our motivation is that God loves us and forgives us and therefore we should not sin. Imperfect contrition is when we ask for forgiveness because we think we’ll go to hell if we don’t ask for forgiveness. Attempting to look at our sins as what separates us from God’s love is the goal here. In the future, look for ways to move closer to who God made you to be and become more of who God knows you can become.